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{{Exemplar ToC|Forum}}
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{{Related|Special:Recentchanges{{!}}Recent Changes|Template:Post}}
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<font color=darkgreen><b>NOTE: This is the location of our old Forum and this page has been locked. All content has been moved to our new threads based [[Forum:General|Forum]]. Please go there to make new posts.</b></font>


The Forum is a central location for discussions that would be of general interest to other [[Related Links|contributors]]. This also includes putting a link here to very specific discussions that are carried out on the talk pages of articles. The general idea is having one place to check for recent contributor discussions. The wiki is growing and there are now many contributors helping cover more topics than ever. The forum should help avoid missing reading and participating in discussions about standards and practices as the wiki continues to evolve.  
The Forum is a central location for discussions that would be of general interest to other [[Related Links|contributors]]. This also includes putting a link here to very specific discussions that are carried out on the talk pages of articles. The general idea is having one place to check for recent contributor discussions. The wiki is growing and there are now many contributors helping cover more topics than ever. The forum should help avoid missing reading and participating in discussions about standards and practices as the wiki continues to evolve.  




If there is a particular contributor that you want to reply to a concern, post a link to the Forum or the article's Talk page on his or her user page (so he or she will get a New Messages highlight when they log in/post again). Two or three-way discussions can be hard to follow when they span more than a single page. Also, if you add this page as a [[Special:Watchlist|Watched Page]] it will show as bold in the [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]] list. If your post will only be of interest to a single person, feel free to post on just that user's talk page. Discussions will be organized by month, though they may continue past the month they were started and will be archived on the [[Talk:Forum|talk page]] for this article after three months.
If there is a particular contributor that you want to reply to a concern, post a link to the Forum or the article's Talk page on his or her user page (so he or she will get a New Messages highlight when they log in/post again). Two or three-way discussions can be hard to follow when they span more than a single page. Also, if you add this page as a [[Special:Watchlist|Watched Page]] it will show as bold in the [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]] list. If your post will only be of interest to a single person, feel free to post on just that user's talk page. Discussions will be organized by month, though they may continue past the month they were started and will be archived on the [[Talk:Forum|talk page]] for this article after two months.


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== October 2009 ==
== Feb 2009 ==
=== Skins & home page design ===
=== Template Revision Progress ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | Text =  
| To =
'''General Issues:'''
  | Text = With the move to Wikia there are several Monaco skin colors along with the Monobook skin. I've done some editing to the [[MediaWiki:Monaco-toolbox]] and [[MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar]] (may need to clear history and refresh to see them). With these changes, the Monaco skin has pretty much all the same links, menus, and tools that were previously found on asheron.info's sidebar and drop down menu. This will hopefully help make the site easier for those not signed in, as Monaco is the default.
* Updating all templates for next release of [[Wiki Swiss Tool]].
<br><br>On the topic of skins - is it possible to change the default to Monobook, so the site would look more familiar to those not logged in? And if it is possible, do we want even want to make this change, or should we embrace and expand on the Monaco skin?
* Moving from format heavy page templates to variable based page templates (will aid data entry speed and provide flexibility in updating formatting in the future).
<br><br>A related topic - the home page. I think that we should consider a serious overhaul of the layout. The major changes I would like to see would be to move AC News & Wiki News to somewhere on the homepage, where they would get much more attention. I'd also consider merging the two into 'news'. I also think we could make some major revisions to the whole topic section, especially since the monaco sidebar menu can cover much of it.
* Live images fixed to not overlap in small browser windows and not appear at all if no image specified.
<br><br>At the very least, the welcome and Getting Started sections should probably be edited or rewritten. And I think we could try changing the style of the boxes - from their current rounded edges to something more resembling our recent template changes.
* Move template links listed below up the chain as progress is made.


<blockquote>
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 17:37, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
'''Revised and Reviewed:''' (final inclusion candidates)
}}
:* --
{{Post
 
| Indent = ::
'''Under Review:''' (Updated and needs improvement feedback, sign the end of each template once you have reviewed it and have no further suggestions.)
| To =
:* [[Individual Creature Template]] - [[Talk:Individual Creature Template|Talk]] - Tlosk, ??
| Text = Nice work with the menus on the sidebars.--{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 22:47, September 30, 2009 (UTC)
:* [[Key Template]] - [[Talk:Key Template|Talk]] - Tlosk, ??
:* [[Patch Announcements Template]] - [[Talk:Patch Announcements Template|Talk]] - Tlosk, ??
 
'''Under Revision:''' (Currently being updated.)
:* [[Quest Guide Template]] - [[Talk:Quest Guide Template|Talk]]
:* [[Creature Entry Template]] - [[Talk:Creature Entry Template|Talk]]
:* [[Individual Dungeon Template]] - [[Talk:Individual Dungeon Template|Talk]]
:* [[Landblock Template]] - [[Talk:Landblock Template|Talk]]
 
'''Needs Revision:''' (Not currently being worked on.)
:* [[Melee Weapon Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Melee Weapon Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Missile Weapon Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Missile Weapon Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Magic Caster Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Magic Caster Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Armor Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Armor Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Shield Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Shield Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Clothing Stat Template]] - [[Talk:Clothing Stat Template|Talk]]
:* [[Jewelry Template]] - [[Talk:Jewelry Template|Talk]]
:* [[Trophy Template ]] - [[Talk:Trophy Template |Talk]]
:* [[NPC Template]] - [[Talk:NPC Template|Talk]]
:* [[Vendor Template]] - [[Talk:Vendor Template|Talk]]
:* [[Standard Text Template]] - [[Talk:Standard Text Template|Talk]]
:* [[Translated Text Template ]] - [[Talk:Translated Text Template |Talk]]
:* [[Town Page Template]] - [[Talk:Town Page Template|Talk]]
:* [[Geographic Area Template]] - [[Talk:Geographic Area Template|Talk]]
:* [[Point of Interest Template]] - [[Talk:Point of Interest Template|Talk]]
:* [[Portal Template]] - [[Talk:Portal Template|Talk]]
 
'''Needs Creation:''' (Does not exist in any form yet.)
:* [[Killtask Guide Template]] - [[Talk:Killtask Guide Template|Talk]]
:* [[Live Event Template]] - [[Talk:Live Event Template|Talk]]
:* [[Rare Template]] - [[Talk:Rare Template|Talk]]
:* [[Housing Item Template]] - [[Talk:Housing Item Template|Talk]]
:* [[Scroll Template]] - [[Talk:Scroll Template|Talk]]
:* [[Food Template]] - [[Talk:Food Template|Talk]]
:* [[Cooking Template]] - [[Talk:Cooking Template|Talk]]
:* [[Crafting Template]] - [[Talk:Crafting Template|Talk]]
:* [[Healing Kit Template]] - [[Talk:Healing Kit Template|Talk]]
:* [[Potion Template ]] - [[Talk:Potion Template |Talk]]
:* [[Object Template]] - [[Talk:Object Template|Talk]]
</blockquote>
}}
}}
=== "Introduced in" standard ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | Text = I think we should make a standard for the "Introduced in" text that is displayed at the top of most pages. I think "'''Introduced in:''' <nowiki>[[??]]</nowiki>" used on creatures and possibly other page types should be phased out in favor of the "From the <nowiki>[[??]]</nowiki> quest introduced in the <nowiki>[[??]]</nowiki> event." standard used on items. Like items, if the creature is not from a quest, the first section is deleted and it just states "Introduced in the <nowiki>[[??]]</nowiki> event."
| To =
  | Text = See: [[User:An Adventurer/Sandbox]] for a more clear example of my idea for updating the home page.


Which brings up a request for Tlosk or anyone else that knows about templates: Can we make a template for this, that is able to display either the quest + patch ''or'' just the patch? For example:
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 18:02, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
<pre>{{Intro|Frore|Sudden Season}}</pre>
Would display as:<br>From the [[Frore]] quest introduced in the [[Sudden Season]] event.
 
and
<pre>{{Intro|N/A|Sudden Season}}</pre>
Would display as:<br>Introduced in the [[Sudden Season]] event.
 
Would that be possible? --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 20:20, 1 February 2009 (CST)
 
edit: I forgot about "updated in". Maybe the template would look more like
<pre>
{{Intro
| Quest =
| Patch =
| Update = Patch1, Patch2
}}
}}
</pre>
{{Post
| Indent = :
| To =
| Text = I have added some more detail to my sandbox linked above. It's not by any means a final design though. I have designed this with the thought that by default, visitors will be in the new monaco skin and will thus be using the sidebar, which I added a lot to. And hopefully we can get the drop-down menu added back to the monobook skin, and that drop down menu can mirror the links and levels of the monaco sidebar menu.
<br><br>I'd like to hear some people's thoughts on the proposed design. I greatly reduced the number of main topics displayed. Are there any topics I removed that you think absolutely need to be there? Are there any topics that were never listed but you thought should be there?
<br><br>I left out links to current/previous/all patches from topics for now, mostly because I couldn't think of good icons to use. I think that there should definitely be a link to the current patch on the main page, but I am not sure we need the previous and all patches links there with them already contained on the sidebar menu.
<br><br>I included [[Game Mechanics]] as a topic. My thought is that this page could be greatly expanded on, and that the current [[General Information]] page would be merged into it.
<br><br>I left out the [[Leveling Guide]] link as a main topic, but I figured that it would be linked to on [[New Player Guide]], [[Returning Player Guide]], [[Game Mechanics]], and [[Level Costs]], all of which are linked to on the main page, so it didn't need it's own link.
<br><br>I also cut out the whole welcome/getting started sections. I placed a short welcome blurb at the top with links to other pages, as seen on many wikis such as wikipedia. I figured that we could go into more detail on the [[Asheron's Call Community Wiki:Introduction]] page and if necessary, create a [[Getting Started]] page. And we could add more general information about the wiki at [[Asheron's Call Community Wiki:About]].


And perhaps it would be easier to create a template if it was displayed like this:
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 21:50, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
:From: <nowiki>[[Quest]]</nowiki>. Introduced in: <nowiki>[[Patch]]</nowiki>. Updated in: <nowiki>[[Patch]]</nowiki>, <nowiki>[[Patch]]</nowiki>.
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 20:36, 1 February 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = ::
  | Indent = ::
  | Text = I've gone through a couple iterations while I was working on the [[Key Template]] over the weekend. Currently what I'm using is a little awkward but works for everything (noun agreement and modifiers always break on something when used) but it is grammatical. I moved updates to the Notes section so that a description of what was done in the update can also be included. The format is <nowiki>"From {{{Quest}}} introduced in {{{Patch}}}."</nowiki>
  | Text = Lot of great stuff there, I can't reply in detail yet but I wanted to make a quick post to comment on a few things. The dynamicpagelists are extremely resource intensive and so we won't be able to use them (it's possible to use them in a limited fashion, but it's not
 
really worth it). It isn't possible to set monobook as the default, though I did specify the color scheme default so at least people won't have the dark scheme when they first come to the site. Also I'd suggest making a long term mockup that we can work on and improve over a few weeks and leave the main page as is until most people have made the transition and signed in at least once. We can put a link on the main page though to the mockup to invite broader feedback and suggestions. The issue with the drop downs in monobook is an extension that's installed that messes up the formatting, I have a request in to remove it so anytime now I should be able to turn that back on (although it's still a little borked in IE, I need to figure out how to fix that also).--{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 00:59, September 30, 2009 (UTC)
I will change the format for creatures to do what you suggested. So where the quest field is blank or left out completely it will use Introduced in ... but when a quest is specified, for things like boss creatures that are strongly associated with a particular quest, it will use From .... introduced in .... --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 06:50, 2 February 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :::
  | Indent = :::
| To = Tlosk
  | Text = I've put together a page at [[Asheron's Call Community Wiki]] --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 19:10, October 7, 2009 (UTC)
  | Text = I like the idea that An Adventurer had, however it might be good to change the formatting a bit, since everything is introduced but not everything has a quest. For Example:
}}
 
{{Post
<pre>{{Intro|Sudden Season|Frore}}</pre>
| Indent = ::
Would display as:<br>From the [[Frore]] quest, introduced in the [[Sudden Season]] event.
| Text = I have gone ahead an modified the main page.


And for items with no quest:
* I have left the topics the same until there is some discussion on them.


<pre>{{Intro|Sudden Season}}</pre>
Would display as:<br>Introduced in the [[Sudden Season]] event.


The other alternative is to ONLY list the introduction at the top, like '''Introduced in:''' [[Sudden Season]], and then underneath it, have a comma separated list of related quests like this example of the [[Empyrean Golem Stone]]:
* The whole welcome/getting started section was removed. It was mostly out of date, and hadn't really been modified since the wiki was created. The relevant info was moved to [[Asheron's Call Community Wiki:Introduction]].


<pre>{{Intro|Rekindling the Light|Crafting Golems, Diemos Flagging}}</pre>
Would display as<br>'''Introduced in:''' [[Rekindling the Light]].<br>'''Related Quests:''' [[Crafting Golems]], [[Diemos Flagging]].


Any of those options would work, however it would be nice if we had a template that was designed to hold multiple quests. --[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 11:37, 2 February 2009 (CST)
* There is now a news section on the main page. I will work more to streamline our whole news section. The old links in the monobook skin sidebar should be removed, but I don't know how to edit that part.


== Jan 2009 ==
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 16:44, October 13, 2009 (UTC)


=== Housing Settlement Standardization ===
{{Post
| Indent = :
| Text = We need to come up with a standard way to handle housing settlements.  There are two ways to do it.  Either create a page for each settlement, or do it like we did with spells, and simple redirect the settlement name to the appropriate [[Housing Settlements]] page (which needs a drastic face lift, lol).  I'm thinking the redirects is the way to go. Any suggestions? --[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 16:34, 31 January 2009 (CST)
}}
{{Post
| Indent = ::
| To = Atarax
| Text = I like the idea of each settlement having its own page. I actually created cottage, villa, and mansion icons for the mapping templates with this in mind. I do agree though it will be a lot of work. I don't see much benefit in the settlement index, or having settlements redirect there. There is some vital information about settlements - type(s), exact number or housing, purchase items, drop coords, town hub - and I think this would be better displayed on a unique page. Also, using the Map Point template to display where the settlement is will be useful for people who choose their house by environment.<br><br>A possible problem with redirecting everything to an index is unnamed single housing and settlements. How would we deal with those?<br><br>Ideally, I would want every settlement to have a unique page, and have the coordinates displayed with the /hslist command redirect to the correct settlement - that way someone can just type in the coords and know exactly how to get there and what item they need.<br>--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 17:26, 31 January 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :::
  | Indent = :::
| To = An Adventurer
  | Text = Awesome work on everything, it looks great. I've been visiting some of the other wikis for ideas and am testing some things out but was trying to finish a map generator first and get some lingering issues from the move resolved. I was also thinking we could make a central hub for navigation where we basically link to almost everything so we can both expand on what is currently on the mainpage and also have a onestop place for people trying to find something (and also expose the nooks and crannies that can be difficult to find if you don't already know they exist). Also I will have a new wiki style forum set up in the next day or two and I'll backfill it with the existing content from here (I may possibly be able to restore our original forum content as well if I can get it running locally). --{{User:Tlosk/Sig}} 15:47, October 14, 2009 (UTC)
  | Text = Interesting thoughts. My only concern is that there are so many.  If we can come up with a system for it, then I'd be all for it, but personally I think I'd want to look a a list of settlements in alpha order. That way I can just click "WhatLinksHere" and see all the quests and routes that go through the settlements. Granted, you could do this on each "individual page" as well, but it will take a lot of work.  I'm down with it though, lets just come up with a solid template before we start, so we don't have to go back and re-do anything. --[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 13:12, 1 February 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = ::::
  | Indent = ::::
  | To = Atarax
  | To = Tlosk
  | Text = Well your whatlinkshere function would probably work better with the portals to the the settlements, rather than settlements themselves. That's one thing I forgot to mention - settlements and their portals should be separate entries. --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 13:28, 1 February 2009 (CST)
  | Text = I have a suggestion for the central hub. The article [[Asheron's Call]]. Until I created the page for the home page updates, it didn't exist on the wiki. Right now it is just a stub, but I was thinking that it would be a great place to have links to lots of various content. Currently, [[Asheron's Call]] is linked to on the home page in the welcome statement, and it is on the monaco-sidebar with the alias Game Info (one of the first tier topics) so it will be easy to access. And it is probably the broadest topic article, since it can cover all things of AC1 and AC2. --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 18:19, October 14, 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}


=== Quest Transclusion Page ===
== September 2009 ==
=== Negative modifers ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | Text = I have created a transclusion page for the quest by letter pages, [[Quests - Development]]. It mirrors the current contents of all the individual pages in one place to make it easier for those of us working on old quest writeups to search for aliases or see tables that need updating without having to click through all the letters.
  | Text = Immortalbob pointed out that there are some weapons that have negative modifiers and they display as "+-10%" etc. I found a way to search for negative mods and found a few more bows and xbows that had a negative damage modifer and a bronze weapon with a negative melee mod. I decided to just add another parameter that would display its value and not format it at all. See [[Cragstone's Axe (Bronze Version)]] and [[Sublime Elari Wood Bow]] for examples. This won't be part of the standard page template as it would be confusing, rather I just wanted to let you know that it's available if needed.


Use the links to go to the original pages if you will be editing something. --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 11:03, 29 January 2009 (CST)
So if you have a weapon that has a negative mod, delete the regular parameter/buffed parameter and replace it with the special one. The two parameters are "Defense" (instead of "Bonus to Defense") and "Modifer" (instead of "Damage Modifer"). And since there is no formatting applied, set it equal to however you want it to appear (including %, font color, bold, etc). --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 00:47, September 30, 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}


=== Live Image Placement and Size ===
=== Wikia Test Server Live ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | Text = In working on the templates for a couple of things that use live shots at the top right, I've found a way of anchoring the image so that it will always appear just to the right of the summary table. This allows you to use larger images if desired without worrying about breaking the page for people using a small browser window (where the image overlaps and hides part of the summary table). However it may not look as good when using a larger browser window (large white space in the right corner). I wanted to get a consensus on what the preference would be? I've temporarily edited [[Eldrytch Web Stronghold]] and [[Radiant Blood Stronghold]] for comparison.--[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 09:08, 28 January 2009 (CST)
  | Text = The Wikia test server is now available at [http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/ACC_Wiki_Home http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/ACC_Wiki_Home]. Almost all extensions have been installed, however there are one or two that are still being worked on. This is a test installation meant to allow us examine what our wiki would be like on Wikia and to give us time to resolve any issues before a move takes place.
}}
 
{{Post
You will not be able to login using your ACC Wiki account, however if you have a Wikia account or create one, you can login using that (if you create an account with the same name, use the same email address you use here to avoid any issues when merging).
| Indent = ::
 
| Text = I figured out a sneaky way of forcing the image to justify right regardless of how large the browser window is while never overlapping the text if the browser window is small. I'll be integrating this feature into the other templates. Also it will no longer display an image if there is either no image specified or if Live.jpg is specified. --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 09:03, 30 January 2009 (CST)
You can change the skin used to our current skin by going to your preferences after logging in and under the Skins section select Monobook and uncheck "Let the admins override my skin choice".
 
Please spend some time testing things out this weekend and record your feedback here: [[Talk:Wikia Migration]]. Later today I will have general information about new ways of doing things and differences at [[Wikia Migration]]. --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 13:09, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}


=== Chests and Packs ===
=== Returning Players ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | Text = [[Category talk:Container]] - --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 08:52, 28 January 2009 (CST)
| To =
}}
  | Text = With the upcoming 10th anniversary patch we will be seeing a lot of returning players. So I'd like to initiate a review of the pages most likely to be of use to these players and beef them up to be as complete as possible. I've listed below as many as  I can think of (add any others you can think of to the list, and over the next few weeks if you have some free time take a look at a few to see what you can add. --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 00:07, 6 September 2009 (UTC)


=== Creature Stats Page ===
* [[New Player Guide]]
{{Post
* [[Returning Player Guide]]
| Indent = :
* [[Plugins]]
| Text = I've made a few changes to the [[Creature Entry Template]], adding a Quests section with links to quests that are centered around that particular creature type and renaming the bestiary description section to simply Lore so I can include tidbits of fiction from the teasers and rollouts that I can find. I also changed the table appearance slightly and put the formatting information into a template so all 70+ creature pages can be manipulated at once if it needs to be changed. I finished adding all of the spawn maps and am now going through the creature pages one by one to update them. Also if you can look through your old images to see if you have any creature related artwork, especially player made from the early days of AC that would be great. --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 17:36, 27 January 2009 (CST)
* [[Story Arcs]]
* [[XP Quests]] (Also you can go to [[:Special:MultiCategorySearch]] and search for Quest and Stub to find quests that need filling out.
* [[Leveling Guide]]
* [[Housing Kit]]
* [[Armor]]
* [[Weapons]]
* [[Mana Forge]]
}}
}}
=== Titles in Patch Page ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = ::
  | Text = I noticed all the ''Future Titles'' in the [[Current_Patch#New_Titles]] section. I guess this is from the hacked client data, but do you think we should include this in the [[Current Patch]]? I think it will become confusing because people will think that's when those titles were actually available. --[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 01:51, 24 January 2009 (CST)
| To =
  | Text = I started a topic already for the leveling guide, you can see it at [[Forum#Leveling Guides]], which links to [[Talk:Leveling Guide]]. Story arcs I can probably handle. The only issue there is that for each patch I have to look over all the quests, the TC rumors, and read the internet lore to make a good summary. And this takes some time. I've saved a bit of time by archiving [[Microsoft Zone Archive/Asheron's Lore/A Brief History for Travelers|A Brief History for Travelers]], but this is not a permanent solution.
<br><br>I want to beef up some of the main lore areas like the cultural pages. I've started this with [[Yalain]], [[Falatacot]], and [[Sho]]. I also want to redesign the [[List of Texts]] page with a cleaner look and if possible, its own wiki table template like the ones for vendors and such. I've started work on this on [[User:An Adventurer/Sandbox 4]].
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = ::
  | Indent = ::
  | To = Atarax
  | To =  
  | Text = Personally I think they should go there as long as they are labeled as such, it helps a lot in trying to discover new content (although in this particular case we know it won't be for a while until some of them are actually available in game). Also it is useful historically in knowing when something was actually added. So as long as the labeling is clear, I think it's more helpful than not. --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 08:35, 24 January 2009 (CST)
  | Text = Two things to add to the list
}}
# A full list of /commands, with each command being its own page. We have the blank [[:Category:/command]] with 1 member. This should be populated.
# A complete and much more detailed description of the user interface, probably with multiple pages. I imagine a sliced image with each image section redirecting to the correct description page.


=== Page Template Updates ===
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 22:27, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
{{Post
| Indent = :
| Text = All [[Page Templates]] are currently under review/construction in preparation for the next release of the [[Wiki Swiss Tool]].--[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 08:26, 24 January 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
==== Spells ====
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :::
  | Text = I've started a [[Cantrip Template|cantrip template here]]. We'll use the [[Talk:Cantrip Template|talk page]] there to discuss improvements. --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 13:10, 23 January 2009 (CST)
| To =
  | Text = That would be really good. Having individual images line up together to make a seamless whole image would be tricky though, it might be easier to use an image map, where you specify the clickable parts of a single image, I'll get it installed. --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 11:37, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}
==== Individual Creature Template ====
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :::
  | To = Tlosk
  | To =  
  | Text = I was thinking the that you could use the Class Variable to dynamically build the <nowiki>[[Category:Creature Class]]</nowiki> portion. That would eliminate any edits required at the bottom of the page for a typical creature. --Atarax 13:21, 23 January 2009 (CST)
  | Text = I noticed that all of the YouTube video embeds are broken, this includes older content such as Turbine's BZ video, game intro, Alphus Lassel, etc etc. I'm assuming Wikia has a different format for embedding? Anyways, I plan on trying to compose an extensive list of non-grind ways of leveling your character, which I think will be a refreshing change to players who dread coming back to grind... as AC has done a great job in allowing players to level without camping dungeons now. Perhaps this could be a seperate section called "no grind" or something. I do think the current leveling guide could be better organized though it is a good start... I might brainstorm for that as well :). Oh, and as far as the sliced image deal goes, can't you just divide the image by "hot spots" and do it that way rather than splitting the image around?  <br>--[[User:ConnortheCraftmaster|Connor the Craftmaster]] 24 September 2009
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = ::
  | Indent = ::
  | To = Atarax
  | To =  
  | Text = I've added that feature to the template, it can have it twice (at the bottom too), but it now automatically adds the Creature Category, the Class Category, and if there is a Subclass, that too. So you can just normally leave the bottom blank now when using the Creature page template and it will categorize itself according to what is put into the Class and Subclass fields.
  | Text = I'm going to be working a lot on the User Interface and other basic help items. I've put together a spliced image of the UI here: [[User:An Adventurer/Sandbox]]
 
--[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 17:51, October 8, 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}


=== Wiki Relocation ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent =  
| Text = The [[Individual Creature Template]] has been significantly changed in form though not in substance. It now uses a template for the table that lets you fill out the data in line rather than amongst tons of formatting info. The notes section has been kept out of the wiki template because there's a lot of variability there and also for a technical reason (you can't have actual page sections like <nowiki>== Notes ==</nowiki> within a wiki template because when you click on edit it will take you to the template page and not stay on the page where the template is being used. Also just to clarify, a [[Page Templates|Page Template]] is what we use as a skeleton for an entire page, a [[Wiki Templates|Wiki Template]] is a smaller section of formatting code that is used within a page. So a page template can contain several wiki templates as part of it.
}}
{{Post
| Indent = ::
  | To =  
  | To =  
  | Text = I made two more tweaks, now any stat left blank will automatically show as ?? so when go back to fill them in don't have to erase and for the xp just put the number. --[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 06:37, 23 January 2009 (CST)
  | Text = Unfortunately continued growth and bandwidth/overhead demands are requiring we move to a new host again. Most of the larger gaming wikis have faced this same transition point in their history where the costs to operate become prohibitive and they have moved to the professional wiki hosting site [http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia Wikia.com]. Wikia was founded by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales Jimmy Wales] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Beesley_Starling Angela Beesley], Chairman Emeritus and Advisory Board chair respectively of the [http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Wikimedia Foundation] which is responsible for both [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikipedia] and [http://www.mediawiki.org/ Mediawiki] (the wiki software that we use to run this site).
}}
 
{{Post
I will try to list as openly as I can the pros and cons of this move below and we will only reach a final decision once everyone has had an opportunity to weigh in, this wiki was made by players of Asheron's Call for the benefit of other players and our primary goal is to ensure the long term availability of the hard work and countless hours of the many [[Related Links|contributors]]. We recognize that the wiki's popularity rests firmly on how useful and broad the wiki has become because of their work.
| Indent = :::
 
| To = Tlosk
{{{!}}cellpadding=6 style=background-color:#d5f0ff; border:1px solid #95daff;
| Text = Nice, those changes will work. Question... Can you use the variables in more than one page on the page? Like ''Class''? Or is it a 1 to 1 relationship? The other suggestion I have is to change some of the wording at the bottom to make the ''What Links Here'' line be automated instead of relying on someone to properly pluralize it. So, by default even the ''Class'', Maybe something like this:
!Pros
!Cons
{{!-}}valign=top
{{!}}style=width:50%;{{!}}
* Hosting would be provided free, meaning the longterm viability of the wiki would no longer be dependent on forces we may not be able to control. Time spent contributing to the wiki would not be in danger of being lost or unavailable.
* Editorial control will remain with us, we will continue to decide what the wiki will be and what it won't be.
* We would share the same host as the largest wikis for games like World of Warcraft, Guildwars, Diablo, Everquest II, Final Fantasy and nongame wikis like Lostpedia, Wookieepedia and others.
* Mediawiki software upgrades, weekly backups, outages, etc are all handled by a full time team of engineers employed by Wikia and we would no longer be dependent on one or two people that aren't always available.
* Wikia will not own the content, it will remain under the Creative Commons open license which means people are free to use submitted data on their own sites or build upon it as they see fit. Unlike other corporately owned fansites (as well as all private sites that I have personally contacted in the past) that severely restrict how information on their sites can be used, the wiki ethos is to make information as widely and as conveniently available as possible. Towards this end Wikia makes weekly data dumps that contain all the wiki's pages. This dump is readily downloadable. This was a goal we have always had ourselves but due to the complexity of remote administration and the size of the dumps it hasn't been practical for us to do. This also protects the data by allowing multiple copies across many people and locations, rather than in just one or two places as is now the case.
* Wikia engineers have created lots of widgets and templates that can be used to improve the site so players can focus on game content instead of spending that time on wiki plumbing.
* A lack of advertising is a common complaint by players that wish Turbine could devote more resources to game exposure. Because of our size we will benefit from visibility on Wikia which will mean Asheron's Call will gain visibility, which hopefully might get some players to return that otherwise wouldn't have.
* While Wikia will have ads, because of the increased costs of running the wiki ads would almost certainly be required going forward no matter what we do. However there would be no guarantee they would cover our costs and we would also require players to take time to administrate this. Wikia on the other hand would handle all aspects of this on our behalf.
{{!}}style=width:50%;{{!}}
* While the style/layout of the wiki as it currently exists can be maintained by adjusting personal preferences (using the monobook skin), it will not be the default skin. Users that do not change their skin preference or users that are not logged in will see pages that differ in appearance.
* Usernames are wikia wide, not just specific to our wiki, as a result there is the possibility some users won't be able to use the exact same name after the move.
* Ads will appear on most pages (the number of ads are reduced when logged in and on pages other than the main page). We will not have direct control over what ads appear, though there is a mechanism to report inappropriate ads.
* Players will not be the final arbiter of what material remains on the wiki. Wikia reserves the right to remove information for any reason. However the history of the other large gaming wikis shows that this has little to no real world impact.
* Wikia is a for profit entity, which means that if ad revenue is greater than the costs to host the wiki, those profits go to Wikia shareholders. Many popular services operate in the same way, like Google Search, Gmail, IGN, Warcry CoD, Hulu, Broadcast Television and Radio, etc. The ads allow the companies to offer services for free to the endusers.
* With the move to Wikia there is the potential for a fork (the creation of another wiki using the same base material but with each wiki then taking their own path with their own set of contributors). Technically this is possible already, however the potential increases if there are people that are unhappy with the move.
{{!}}}


<pre>
* [[:Special:Whatlinkshere/{{PAGENAME}}|Locations]] where a {{PAGENAME}} can be found.
</pre>


--[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 16:35, 23 January 2009 (CST)
We would like to allow time for any of our contributors or readers who might have concerns to be able to voice them now so they can be addressed to their satisfaction before a move is made. --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 23:56, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :::::
  | Indent = :
  | To = Atarax
  | To =  
  | Text = That's a good idea, to avoid agreement issues (a/an etc) I made it so it just says "* <Name> Locations." and added it the creature template. As I'm going through the old creature entries and changing them I've come across quite a few that were either missing the plural name all together or weren't pluralized so this will make it a lot better.  
  | Text = We've been very fortunate to have our current free hosting (Thanks Mav!), but I don't think we're going to find a better solution than Wikia.  Wikia provides exactly what we need, and since they host other gaming wikis with much larger communities, we shouldn't have to worry about capacity.


For example:
I understand that advertising is necessary, but blinking, flashing, animated advertisements are so distracting that I either block them, or don't visit those sites anymore.  I see there is one such ad on the main page of the lotro wiki, though the other four ads aren't a problem.


<pre>
It's reassuring that they do make site content available for download -- so much effort has been put into the wiki already that I'd hate to see it lost.
{{Locations|{{PAGENAME}}}}
</pre>


displays as:
I already have an account at Wikia.  If we moved there, can my ACC Wiki account/username/contributions be merged/associated with my existing Wikia account?


{{Locations|{{PAGENAME}}}}
By the way, it might be worth starting a thread on the Turbine forums, to hear what people there think.  --[[User:Widgeon|Widgeon]] 09:45, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
 
}}
--[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 13:08, 23 January 2009 (CST)
{{Post
| Indent = ::
| To =
| Text =  If there are two accounts with the same name, then email addresses are compared. If they match, that name is set as one account. If there are two accounts and the email addresses don't match, then a prefix would be added to the new (merging) account. If you have accounts of the same name on ACCWiki and on Wikia, make sure your email address is the same on both accounts. To do this, go to your preferences page, make sure the "email" field is correct, and authenticate your email by clicking the link in the email sent to you. If you have accounts of different names on ACCWiki and Wikia, and you would like them merged, there will be a talk page where you can request they be merged into a single account. (If the emails don't match and someone ends up with a prefixed name, it will be possible to merge them after the fact after verifying both accounts belong to the same person, or a name change to a nonprefixed, unique name if desired if you don't own the wikia account of the same name). --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 20:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}
=== Point Maps ===
:See [[Template talk:Map Point Plus]] and [[Template talk:Map Point]].
=== Wiki Templates ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :::
  | Text = I've created a new help page, [[Wiki Templates]] that references several new formatting templates with more to come soon. The general idea of a template is it takes formatting code that is complicated and/or used in many articles and lets you refer to it rather than use it on every page. There are two benefits to this, one it makes posting simpler and second, it makes it possible to change the formatting for all those pages with a single edit to the template page rather than to all the individual pages.
| To =
 
  | Text = Thanks, that answers my question.  I've updated my email address, and that's all I should need to do. --[[User:Widgeon|Widgeon]] 22:27, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
These are different from [[Page Templates]] because they are used within a page for a part of it, rather a layout for an entire page.
 
There's no obligation to use them, and they aren't universally good, what you gain in ease of use, you give up in terms of being able to customize or stray from the format when you need to add things unique to that page. But overall templates help give the wiki a uniform feel, allow neophyte users to make complicated constructions, and minimize errors.
--[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 06:38, 24 January 2009 (CST)
}}
}}
==== Creature Template====
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | To = Tlosk
  | To =  
  | Text = I think I found a bug with the creature template, see [[Coral Tower]] for an example. If you try to show a creature class like [[Misc. Creature Class]] it will not work. Also, if you want to mask that link, like [[Misc. Creature Class|Wall]], it will not show the label, only '''Misc. Creature Class|''' (notice the trailing pipe). --[[User:Atarax|Atarax]] 12:59, 22 January 2009 (CST)
  | Text = I'd never thought of the fact that wikia advertises their other wikis. That is a real nice benefit. However, on the point about user names- if names are universal, that means anyone from any wikia wiki can edit any other wiki? That sounds like it has the potential for harassment. Has this ever been an issue? Also, you said we remain in editorial control. Do we still keep the ability to ban/block bad users, or is that something wikia does? --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 16:19, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
}}
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = ::
  | Indent = ::
  | To = Atarax
  | To =  
  | Text = Misc is an exception, you put just Misc. Creature Class for the Class, then put what is displayed under the Subclass and it will show correctly. However if a case comes up where you need to have an alias for a parameter for a template, you can use <nowiki>{{!}}</nowiki> instead of a pipe. For example:
  | Text = Any registered user with Wikia would be able to login to edit our wiki, as we could theirs. All of our admins will still be able to [http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Administrators%27_how-to_guide#How_do_I_block_a_troublemaker.3F block any user from our wiki], also Wikia staff can put in place a global block for users that are vandalizing/spamming more than one wiki.


<pre>
Looking through the [[:Special:BlockList]] for several of the larger wikis they don't have large numbers of blocks per month so it doesn't seem that vandalism/spamming is much of an issue.
{{Related|:Category:Maps{{!}}ALL MAPS|Unmapped Dungeons}}
</pre>


displays as:
Also on a related side note, we didn't move our old chat forums during the last hosting relocation because of the spam problems and server overhead concerns, but we can have a true forum again if we wish after the move. --{{User:Tlosk/SigR}} 20:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
 
{{Related|:Category:Maps{{!}}ALL MAPS|Unmapped Dungeons}}
 
--[[User:Tlosk|Tlosk]] 13:20, 22 January 2009 (CST)
}}
}}


== Dec 2008 ==
=== Leveling Guides ===
=== Spells ===
{{Post
{{Post
  | Indent = :
  | Indent = :
  | To = An Adventurer
  | To =  
  | Text = I added the spell [[Mucor Jolt]] as a redirect for [[Drain_Health_(Spell)]], but as it is not "castable" (only found on a weapon), would this properly classify itself as Spell? It's not really a cantrip either, so where do you think it should be redirected to? Maybe [[Drain Health (Cantrip)]] ?
  | Text = See [[Talk:Leveling Guide]] --[[User:An Adventurer|An Adventurer]] 17:53, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
}}
{{Post
| Indent = ::
| To = Atarax
| Text = Unique spells like that can have their own page, marked as Category:Unlearnable Castable Spell. The only time that a unique quest only spell should redirect to a standard spell page is when it has an effect that can be seen to stack with or surpass regular spells. For example, there are many quest only cantrips (like on the living weapons, or the spear of purity) but these can be proven to stack or override standard spells and cantrips.
 
So in short, most unique quest/item spells that mimic a life, creature, or item spell/cantrip will redirect to the appropriate page. Unique war and offensive life spells will have an individual page. And I think, for now at least, most of those special boss only debuffs should have unique pages, since many of them do not have a standard spell counterpart, and it is also rather difficult to find what standard debuffs they do stack with. --An Adventurer 18:30, 19 December 2008 (CST)  
}}
}}


 
== Archived Forum Posts ==
See [[Talk:Forum]]


[[Category:Help]]
[[Category:Help]]

Latest revision as of 06:15, 30 July 2012

Related topics: Recent Changes, {{Post}}

NOTE: This is the location of our old Forum and this page has been locked. All content has been moved to our new threads based Forum. Please go there to make new posts.

The Forum is a central location for discussions that would be of general interest to other contributors. This also includes putting a link here to very specific discussions that are carried out on the talk pages of articles. The general idea is having one place to check for recent contributor discussions. The wiki is growing and there are now many contributors helping cover more topics than ever. The forum should help avoid missing reading and participating in discussions about standards and practices as the wiki continues to evolve.


If there is a particular contributor that you want to reply to a concern, post a link to the Forum or the article's Talk page on his or her user page (so he or she will get a New Messages highlight when they log in/post again). Two or three-way discussions can be hard to follow when they span more than a single page. Also, if you add this page as a Watched Page it will show as bold in the Recent Changes list. If your post will only be of interest to a single person, feel free to post on just that user's talk page. Discussions will be organized by month, though they may continue past the month they were started and will be archived on the talk page for this article after two months. 

{{Post
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 | To = 
 | Text = 
}}

October 2009

Skins & home page design

With the move to Wikia there are several Monaco skin colors along with the Monobook skin. I've done some editing to the MediaWiki:Monaco-toolbox and MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar (may need to clear history and refresh to see them). With these changes, the Monaco skin has pretty much all the same links, menus, and tools that were previously found on asheron.info's sidebar and drop down menu. This will hopefully help make the site easier for those not signed in, as Monaco is the default.

On the topic of skins - is it possible to change the default to Monobook, so the site would look more familiar to those not logged in? And if it is possible, do we want even want to make this change, or should we embrace and expand on the Monaco skin?

A related topic - the home page. I think that we should consider a serious overhaul of the layout. The major changes I would like to see would be to move AC News & Wiki News to somewhere on the homepage, where they would get much more attention. I'd also consider merging the two into 'news'. I also think we could make some major revisions to the whole topic section, especially since the monaco sidebar menu can cover much of it.

At the very least, the welcome and Getting Started sections should probably be edited or rewritten. And I think we could try changing the style of the boxes - from their current rounded edges to something more resembling our recent template changes.

--An Adventurer 17:37, September 25, 2009 (UTC)

Nice work with the menus on the sidebars.--How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 22:47, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

See: User:An Adventurer/Sandbox for a more clear example of my idea for updating the home page.

--An Adventurer 18:02, September 25, 2009 (UTC)

I have added some more detail to my sandbox linked above. It's not by any means a final design though. I have designed this with the thought that by default, visitors will be in the new monaco skin and will thus be using the sidebar, which I added a lot to. And hopefully we can get the drop-down menu added back to the monobook skin, and that drop down menu can mirror the links and levels of the monaco sidebar menu.

I'd like to hear some people's thoughts on the proposed design. I greatly reduced the number of main topics displayed. Are there any topics I removed that you think absolutely need to be there? Are there any topics that were never listed but you thought should be there?

I left out links to current/previous/all patches from topics for now, mostly because I couldn't think of good icons to use. I think that there should definitely be a link to the current patch on the main page, but I am not sure we need the previous and all patches links there with them already contained on the sidebar menu.

I included Game Mechanics as a topic. My thought is that this page could be greatly expanded on, and that the current General Information page would be merged into it.

I left out the Leveling Guide link as a main topic, but I figured that it would be linked to on New Player Guide, Returning Player Guide, Game Mechanics, and Level Costs, all of which are linked to on the main page, so it didn't need it's own link.

I also cut out the whole welcome/getting started sections. I placed a short welcome blurb at the top with links to other pages, as seen on many wikis such as wikipedia. I figured that we could go into more detail on the Asheron's Call Community Wiki:Introduction page and if necessary, create a Getting Started page. And we could add more general information about the wiki at Asheron's Call Community Wiki:About.

--An Adventurer 21:50, September 27, 2009 (UTC)

Lot of great stuff there, I can't reply in detail yet but I wanted to make a quick post to comment on a few things. The dynamicpagelists are extremely resource intensive and so we won't be able to use them (it's possible to use them in a limited fashion, but it's not really worth it). It isn't possible to set monobook as the default, though I did specify the color scheme default so at least people won't have the dark scheme when they first come to the site. Also I'd suggest making a long term mockup that we can work on and improve over a few weeks and leave the main page as is until most people have made the transition and signed in at least once. We can put a link on the main page though to the mockup to invite broader feedback and suggestions. The issue with the drop downs in monobook is an extension that's installed that messes up the formatting, I have a request in to remove it so anytime now I should be able to turn that back on (although it's still a little borked in IE, I need to figure out how to fix that also).--How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 00:59, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

I've put together a page at Asheron's Call Community Wiki --An Adventurer 19:10, October 7, 2009 (UTC)

I have gone ahead an modified the main page.

  • I have left the topics the same until there is some discussion on them.


  • The whole welcome/getting started section was removed. It was mostly out of date, and hadn't really been modified since the wiki was created. The relevant info was moved to Asheron's Call Community Wiki:Introduction.


  • There is now a news section on the main page. I will work more to streamline our whole news section. The old links in the monobook skin sidebar should be removed, but I don't know how to edit that part.

--An Adventurer 16:44, October 13, 2009 (UTC)

Awesome work on everything, it looks great. I've been visiting some of the other wikis for ideas and am testing some things out but was trying to finish a map generator first and get some lingering issues from the move resolved. I was also thinking we could make a central hub for navigation where we basically link to almost everything so we can both expand on what is currently on the mainpage and also have a onestop place for people trying to find something (and also expose the nooks and crannies that can be difficult to find if you don't already know they exist). Also I will have a new wiki style forum set up in the next day or two and I'll backfill it with the existing content from here (I may possibly be able to restore our original forum content as well if I can get it running locally). --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 15:47, October 14, 2009 (UTC)

To: Tlosk
I have a suggestion for the central hub. The article Asheron's Call. Until I created the page for the home page updates, it didn't exist on the wiki. Right now it is just a stub, but I was thinking that it would be a great place to have links to lots of various content. Currently, Asheron's Call is linked to on the home page in the welcome statement, and it is on the monaco-sidebar with the alias Game Info (one of the first tier topics) so it will be easy to access. And it is probably the broadest topic article, since it can cover all things of AC1 and AC2. --An Adventurer 18:19, October 14, 2009 (UTC)

September 2009

Negative modifers

Immortalbob pointed out that there are some weapons that have negative modifiers and they display as "+-10%" etc. I found a way to search for negative mods and found a few more bows and xbows that had a negative damage modifer and a bronze weapon with a negative melee mod. I decided to just add another parameter that would display its value and not format it at all. See Cragstone's Axe (Bronze Version) and Sublime Elari Wood Bow for examples. This won't be part of the standard page template as it would be confusing, rather I just wanted to let you know that it's available if needed.

So if you have a weapon that has a negative mod, delete the regular parameter/buffed parameter and replace it with the special one. The two parameters are "Defense" (instead of "Bonus to Defense") and "Modifer" (instead of "Damage Modifer"). And since there is no formatting applied, set it equal to however you want it to appear (including %, font color, bold, etc). --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 00:47, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

Wikia Test Server Live

The Wikia test server is now available at http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/ACC_Wiki_Home. Almost all extensions have been installed, however there are one or two that are still being worked on. This is a test installation meant to allow us examine what our wiki would be like on Wikia and to give us time to resolve any issues before a move takes place.

You will not be able to login using your ACC Wiki account, however if you have a Wikia account or create one, you can login using that (if you create an account with the same name, use the same email address you use here to avoid any issues when merging).

You can change the skin used to our current skin by going to your preferences after logging in and under the Skins section select Monobook and uncheck "Let the admins override my skin choice".

Please spend some time testing things out this weekend and record your feedback here: Talk:Wikia Migration. Later today I will have general information about new ways of doing things and differences at Wikia Migration. --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 13:09, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Returning Players

With the upcoming 10th anniversary patch we will be seeing a lot of returning players. So I'd like to initiate a review of the pages most likely to be of use to these players and beef them up to be as complete as possible. I've listed below as many as I can think of (add any others you can think of to the list, and over the next few weeks if you have some free time take a look at a few to see what you can add. --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 00:07, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

I started a topic already for the leveling guide, you can see it at Forum#Leveling Guides, which links to Talk:Leveling Guide. Story arcs I can probably handle. The only issue there is that for each patch I have to look over all the quests, the TC rumors, and read the internet lore to make a good summary. And this takes some time. I've saved a bit of time by archiving A Brief History for Travelers, but this is not a permanent solution.

I want to beef up some of the main lore areas like the cultural pages. I've started this with Yalain, Falatacot, and Sho. I also want to redesign the List of Texts page with a cleaner look and if possible, its own wiki table template like the ones for vendors and such. I've started work on this on User:An Adventurer/Sandbox 4.

Two things to add to the list

  1. A full list of /commands, with each command being its own page. We have the blank Category:/command with 1 member. This should be populated.
  2. A complete and much more detailed description of the user interface, probably with multiple pages. I imagine a sliced image with each image section redirecting to the correct description page.

--An Adventurer 22:27, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

That would be really good. Having individual images line up together to make a seamless whole image would be tricky though, it might be easier to use an image map, where you specify the clickable parts of a single image, I'll get it installed. --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 11:37, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I noticed that all of the YouTube video embeds are broken, this includes older content such as Turbine's BZ video, game intro, Alphus Lassel, etc etc. I'm assuming Wikia has a different format for embedding? Anyways, I plan on trying to compose an extensive list of non-grind ways of leveling your character, which I think will be a refreshing change to players who dread coming back to grind... as AC has done a great job in allowing players to level without camping dungeons now. Perhaps this could be a seperate section called "no grind" or something. I do think the current leveling guide could be better organized though it is a good start... I might brainstorm for that as well :). Oh, and as far as the sliced image deal goes, can't you just divide the image by "hot spots" and do it that way rather than splitting the image around?
--Connor the Craftmaster 24 September 2009

I'm going to be working a lot on the User Interface and other basic help items. I've put together a spliced image of the UI here: User:An Adventurer/Sandbox

--An Adventurer 17:51, October 8, 2009 (UTC)

Wiki Relocation

Unfortunately continued growth and bandwidth/overhead demands are requiring we move to a new host again. Most of the larger gaming wikis have faced this same transition point in their history where the costs to operate become prohibitive and they have moved to the professional wiki hosting site Wikia.com. Wikia was founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley, Chairman Emeritus and Advisory Board chair respectively of the Wikimedia Foundation which is responsible for both Wikipedia and Mediawiki (the wiki software that we use to run this site).

I will try to list as openly as I can the pros and cons of this move below and we will only reach a final decision once everyone has had an opportunity to weigh in, this wiki was made by players of Asheron's Call for the benefit of other players and our primary goal is to ensure the long term availability of the hard work and countless hours of the many contributors. We recognize that the wiki's popularity rests firmly on how useful and broad the wiki has become because of their work.

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Pros Cons
  • Hosting would be provided free, meaning the longterm viability of the wiki would no longer be dependent on forces we may not be able to control. Time spent contributing to the wiki would not be in danger of being lost or unavailable.
  • Editorial control will remain with us, we will continue to decide what the wiki will be and what it won't be.
  • We would share the same host as the largest wikis for games like World of Warcraft, Guildwars, Diablo, Everquest II, Final Fantasy and nongame wikis like Lostpedia, Wookieepedia and others.
  • Mediawiki software upgrades, weekly backups, outages, etc are all handled by a full time team of engineers employed by Wikia and we would no longer be dependent on one or two people that aren't always available.
  • Wikia will not own the content, it will remain under the Creative Commons open license which means people are free to use submitted data on their own sites or build upon it as they see fit. Unlike other corporately owned fansites (as well as all private sites that I have personally contacted in the past) that severely restrict how information on their sites can be used, the wiki ethos is to make information as widely and as conveniently available as possible. Towards this end Wikia makes weekly data dumps that contain all the wiki's pages. This dump is readily downloadable. This was a goal we have always had ourselves but due to the complexity of remote administration and the size of the dumps it hasn't been practical for us to do. This also protects the data by allowing multiple copies across many people and locations, rather than in just one or two places as is now the case.
  • Wikia engineers have created lots of widgets and templates that can be used to improve the site so players can focus on game content instead of spending that time on wiki plumbing.
  • A lack of advertising is a common complaint by players that wish Turbine could devote more resources to game exposure. Because of our size we will benefit from visibility on Wikia which will mean Asheron's Call will gain visibility, which hopefully might get some players to return that otherwise wouldn't have.
  • While Wikia will have ads, because of the increased costs of running the wiki ads would almost certainly be required going forward no matter what we do. However there would be no guarantee they would cover our costs and we would also require players to take time to administrate this. Wikia on the other hand would handle all aspects of this on our behalf.
  • While the style/layout of the wiki as it currently exists can be maintained by adjusting personal preferences (using the monobook skin), it will not be the default skin. Users that do not change their skin preference or users that are not logged in will see pages that differ in appearance.
  • Usernames are wikia wide, not just specific to our wiki, as a result there is the possibility some users won't be able to use the exact same name after the move.
  • Ads will appear on most pages (the number of ads are reduced when logged in and on pages other than the main page). We will not have direct control over what ads appear, though there is a mechanism to report inappropriate ads.
  • Players will not be the final arbiter of what material remains on the wiki. Wikia reserves the right to remove information for any reason. However the history of the other large gaming wikis shows that this has little to no real world impact.
  • Wikia is a for profit entity, which means that if ad revenue is greater than the costs to host the wiki, those profits go to Wikia shareholders. Many popular services operate in the same way, like Google Search, Gmail, IGN, Warcry CoD, Hulu, Broadcast Television and Radio, etc. The ads allow the companies to offer services for free to the endusers.
  • With the move to Wikia there is the potential for a fork (the creation of another wiki using the same base material but with each wiki then taking their own path with their own set of contributors). Technically this is possible already, however the potential increases if there are people that are unhappy with the move.


We would like to allow time for any of our contributors or readers who might have concerns to be able to voice them now so they can be addressed to their satisfaction before a move is made. --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 23:56, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

We've been very fortunate to have our current free hosting (Thanks Mav!), but I don't think we're going to find a better solution than Wikia. Wikia provides exactly what we need, and since they host other gaming wikis with much larger communities, we shouldn't have to worry about capacity.

I understand that advertising is necessary, but blinking, flashing, animated advertisements are so distracting that I either block them, or don't visit those sites anymore. I see there is one such ad on the main page of the lotro wiki, though the other four ads aren't a problem.

It's reassuring that they do make site content available for download -- so much effort has been put into the wiki already that I'd hate to see it lost.

I already have an account at Wikia. If we moved there, can my ACC Wiki account/username/contributions be merged/associated with my existing Wikia account?

By the way, it might be worth starting a thread on the Turbine forums, to hear what people there think. --Widgeon 09:45, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

If there are two accounts with the same name, then email addresses are compared. If they match, that name is set as one account. If there are two accounts and the email addresses don't match, then a prefix would be added to the new (merging) account. If you have accounts of the same name on ACCWiki and on Wikia, make sure your email address is the same on both accounts. To do this, go to your preferences page, make sure the "email" field is correct, and authenticate your email by clicking the link in the email sent to you. If you have accounts of different names on ACCWiki and Wikia, and you would like them merged, there will be a talk page where you can request they be merged into a single account. (If the emails don't match and someone ends up with a prefixed name, it will be possible to merge them after the fact after verifying both accounts belong to the same person, or a name change to a nonprefixed, unique name if desired if you don't own the wikia account of the same name). --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 20:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, that answers my question. I've updated my email address, and that's all I should need to do. --Widgeon 22:27, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I'd never thought of the fact that wikia advertises their other wikis. That is a real nice benefit. However, on the point about user names- if names are universal, that means anyone from any wikia wiki can edit any other wiki? That sounds like it has the potential for harassment. Has this ever been an issue? Also, you said we remain in editorial control. Do we still keep the ability to ban/block bad users, or is that something wikia does? --An Adventurer 16:19, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Any registered user with Wikia would be able to login to edit our wiki, as we could theirs. All of our admins will still be able to block any user from our wiki, also Wikia staff can put in place a global block for users that are vandalizing/spamming more than one wiki.

Looking through the Special:BlockList for several of the larger wikis they don't have large numbers of blocks per month so it doesn't seem that vandalism/spamming is much of an issue.

Also on a related side note, we didn't move our old chat forums during the last hosting relocation because of the spam problems and server overhead concerns, but we can have a true forum again if we wish after the move. --How often to wash makeup brushes? ,<a href=http://cheap-macmakeupor.webs.com/#38275>wholesale mac makeup</a> ,,http://clarisonicmia2us.webs.com/#18392 20:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Leveling Guides

See Talk:Leveling Guide --An Adventurer 17:53, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Archived Forum Posts

See Talk:Forum

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